If, like me, you were raised on a steady diet of Rapture sermons, you’ll find much to relate to in Coming of Age at the End of Days, the darkly entertaining novel of faith gone awry by Alice LaPlante, the bestselling author of Circle of Wives.

Sixteen year old Anna, unpopular at school and searching for something to hold on to, falls under the spell of her new neighbors, the Goldshmidts. The Goldshmidt parents and their teenaged son, Lars, belong to a cult whose mission is to speed up the coming of the Tribulation–the dark period of hell on earth that fundamentalist Christians believe will follow the second coming of Christ. When she is suddenly orphaned, Anna’s grief over her parents’ death is muted by her belief in their spiritual shortcomings. As a concerned teacher tries to guide her back to reality, Anna becomes ever more obsessed with the Tribulation and her role in making it happen.

The cult’s mission centers on the breeding of pure red heifers; Orthodox Judaism holds that Jews must be purified by the ashes of a red heifer in order to rebuild the Third Temple. Evangelical Christians have long been on this bandwagon, as they believe that the rebuilding of the Third Temple is a prerequisite for the coming of Christ. This is great stuff, and it’s not even made up. (For a fascinating, in-depth explanation of the red heifer mythology and a profile of the Mississippi preacher named Clyde Lott and the Orthodox Rabbi who are in cahoots to breed cattle to get things rolling, read the excellent PBS Frontline report, Forcing the End: Why Do a Pentecostal Preacher from Mississippi and an Orthodox Rabbi from Jerusalem Believe That a Red Heifer Can Bring Change?)

In the background of LaPlante’s novel is a far-away figure who is working to breed the heifers–a character who seems to be based to large extent on Lott. For readers who didn’t grow up with the terrifying Left Behind series (we watched them at church lock-ins) and with the Rapture in the background as a constant threat, LaPlante’s novel may seem delightfully far-fetched. As someone who believed all this stuff hook, line, and sinker until I left high school, it’s far more relaxing to return to the subject in fictional form as an adult, when I am able to see it as a dark fairy tale instead of a terrifying inevitability.

Anna is an interesting character, and I easily found myself rooting for her. The only bit that didn’t quite ring true was Anna’s initial fascination with Lars. When he utters a few words to her at a bus stop, she falls instantly under his spell. I would have liked to see her more gradually sucked in; a deeper exploration of why she fell for Lars’s story, and for his outsized view of his own elevated place in the world, would have made for a more nuanced character.

What I find most interesting about the Tribulation is its potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Evangelical American presidents have made monumentally dangerous decisions based upon the belief that it is their duty to move the world in the direction of the Second Coming. As I write this, ISIS too is attempting to bring on the Apocalypse. With three distinctly different groups–evangelical Christians, Islamic extremists, and Orthodox Jews–moving toward three very different versions of the end of days, a man-made version of the Tribulation may very well come to pass.

In Coming of Age at the End of Days, LaPlante has crafted a darkly entertaining and often enlightening cautionary tale about what happens when youth and faith collide. Highly recommended for fans of psychologically complex fiction, as well as for reformed Evangelicals.

In the warm, practical style that her fans have come to expect, Gretchen Rubin explains why habits matter, and how to make them work for you, in her new book, Better Than Before. Rubin begins by breaking people down into four groups: upholders, obligers, questioners, and rebels, providing checklists to help you decide where you fit in. She then goes on to delve into the psychology of habit formation, peppering her personal narrative and a good dose of self-help with quotations from the likes of St. Augustine and Benjamin Franklin.

Better Than Before is light but inspiring reading for anyone who wants to adopt a few new good habits, or discard some bad ones. If you’re like me, you’ll be very glad to have Rubin’s book in your hands, and equally glad that she isn’t your neighbor or sister, and that she hasn’t set her sights on your dietary habits. While the author often comes off as judgmental or meddling, her keen awareness of these traits in herself makes her more likable than you might expect.

Despite a tendency toward repetition, Rubin’s prose strikes a nice balance between engaging, informative, personal, and practical. Readers who loved to hate the author of Happier at Home–who spent a lot of time yelling at her kids and often came off as stingy with her money and her affection (she doesn’t like buying gifts and had to make an effort to kiss her husband before he left for work)–will likely find more common ground with the voice behind Better Than Before. Here, we get a glimpse of the author as committed friend, sister, and daughter, someone so passionate about exercise that she buys her sister a treadmill desk, and so intent on the benefits of de-cluttering that she spends hours cleaning out a friends apartment, only to realize that clutter doesn’t really bother him much. One gets the feeling that Rubin really likes to help people, and that all that busy-bodyness comes from a genuine mix of passion and compassion.

Readers who started their own happiness projects after reading The Happiness Project are likely to enjoy Rubin’s latest effort. While there is something slightly grating about the author (she hates travel and interesting food, repeatedly refers to her penthouse as an “apartment,” and never misses an opportunity, in any of her books, to remind readers that she once clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor), there is something inspiring about her as well. Although it sounds like a line from a bad romcom, she really does make you want to be a better version of yourself. If it’s any indication of just how practical this book is, I’ve already started keeping track of three new habits, and I’ve even started researching DIY treadmill desks.

Crown. March 17, 2014. ISBN 978-0385348614

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of six books of fiction, including Golden State and The Year of Fog. Visit her at michellerichmond.com.

The 1907 novel by Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset, who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1928, still holds up to scrutiny today. It is now, as it was then, a very modern novel. The subject–the interior life of a young married woman who desperately longs for a more passionate life–made waves in Norway upon its publication and has been translated for the first time into English. A beautifully written, deeply affecting journey into the mind of a woman struggling against convention.

While anyone who has read The 4 Hour Work Week may find this book a bit repetitive, entrepreneurs looking to save more time for themselves by outsourcing will find good information on how to find virtual assistants, how to work productively with them, and how much to pay.

The author interviews several entrepreneurs who have successfully grown their businesses in partnership with virtual assistants. Each of the interviewees offers his or her own favorite resources for things like project management, document sharing, and payroll. Ducker makes a convincing case that the Philippines is the best place abroad to seek virtual assistants. Ducker’s explanations of the roles you can expect each employee to play in your business seem like common sense and possibly filler (a web developer creates your website, an SEO expert optimizers your site for search engines). However, his descriptions of the cultural sensitivities one must have when working with a virtual assistant, and his emphasis on the fact that many virtual assistants in the Philippines are primary breadwinners for their family and thus should be treated as such, could help many online entrepreneurs avoid bad business practices that are harmful to their employees.

A caveat that the author admits to up front: he owns a virtual assistant firm. Naturally, he recommends his own firm to readers. His firm specializes in GVAs (General Virtual Assistants), and the book, unsurprisingly, argues that the most important part of your team is the GVA–the result being that the book feels a bit like an advertisement for his company. And, having read about the way the online entrepreneurs in the book make a living, you’ll be hard pressed not to assume that Ducker simply hired some virtual assistants to research the market and write a book that would bring customers to his business.

Verdict: Helpful and easy to read, with some good insights on navigating the cultural challenges of outsourcing…but because of the advertorial bent, one should take it with a grain of salt

When Oxford, Mississippi resident Mary Byrd Thornton receives word from a Virginia detective that the thirty-year-old investigation into the assault and murder of her half-brother, Stevie, is being reopened, she must travel to her hometown to confront her family’s heartbreaking past. Her current life doesn’t stop for the investigation, however. As Mary Byrd is preparing for the arduous journey through a killer storm, the daughter of Mary Byrd’s housekeeper, Evagreen, is arrested for the murder of Angie’s abusive husband.

In Flying Shoes, Lisa Howorth (co-owner of Oxford’s beloved institution Square Books) provides a smart, provocative glimpse into an often misunderstood culture. While the story of the search for Stevie’s killer plays backseat to the larger story of Mary Byrd’s life as a wife, mother, friend, and inhabitant of Oxford, the specter of Stevie’s loss, and Mary Byrd’s guilt over her possible connection to the crime, haunts the entire novel. The wide cast of deftly drawn characters–a homeless Vietnam vet named Teever, an insufferable but too-famous-to-be-ignored photographer, a hard-drinking love interest from an old but fallen family, and Mary Byrd’s dear friend Mann–offers a glimpse into the complexities and contradictions of Mississippi’s plantation-era past, which has deep-seated implications for racial relations in the present day.

Poignant and unputdownable, Flying Shoes is told with humor and verve. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Michelle Richmond, New York Times bestselling author of Golden State and The Year of Fog

Short stories–the rite of passage for every MFA student, the inevitable debut collection–turn from bonbons to weapons in the expert hands of Grace Paley, Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, and their ilk. These authors are not failed novelists whose ideas are too narrow for a magnum opus; they’re the grand wizards of a completely different art form, and Ms. Munro has a freshly minted Nobel Prize to prove it. Now joining their ranks is Peter Orner, whose second book of stories reveals a level of precision and craft that makes me hope, despite his two very fine novels, that he keeps writing short forever.

Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge lightly knots together 51 pieces ranging in scope from a single moment to a series of them, each as fully realized as a bullet. Reciting plot points won’t reveal much: Herb and Rosalie Swanson tell the same story over and over again at parties; Allie goes swimming with a bevy of boys; Walt Kaplan listens to his daughter thump up and down the stairs. Orner’s gift lies in stripping all of these people bare through their minutia. Suspension of disbelief is not an issue here: These are people, never inventions, and you’re gently peering through the window as they do their broken, beautiful human thing.

The experience is raw and familiar and so well orchestrated, it doesn’t really matter where you dip in. But if you do read Last Car cover to cover all at once–and you probably will, because putting this book down would be like hanging up the phone mid-conversation–then you’ll get the added pleasure of recognizing a few old friends when they stop by for a second or third visit.

You wouldn’t think someone could haunt you with a life that spans just a few lines, but Peter Orner can. He can tell you an entire ghost story, and you won’t stop believing it until the next welcome specter chases it away.

It is the dead of winter, and the small New England town of Coventry is bracing for a blizzard. By the time the apocalyptically brutal storm has passed, many of Coventry’s citizens will be dead or vanished. Among the victims is little Isaac Schapiro, whose brother Jake laughed off Isaac’s terrified description of the Ice Men, until he realized that the phantoms Isaac saw in the wind outside their window were real. Niko Ristani, who is engaged to Isaac’s mother Allie, is also dead. Some of the lost citizens of Coventry suffered violent, inexplicable injuries; others simply vanished into the storm.

Twelve years later, the loved ones of the dead and missing have repaired their lives to varying degrees, moving on but rarely flourishing. Several of the living are shrouded in guilt. Police Detective Joe Keenan is haunted by his failure to save a young boy who was electrocuted while out sledding, and still confounded by the disappearance of the boy’s father. Doug Manning, who didn’t make it home to save his wife Cherie, has turned to a life of petty crime. TJ, a musician, left his mother on her own that night to be with a woman named Ella on whom he’d long had a crush. Now, TJ’s marriage to Ella is crumbling.

As the new monster storm descends upon Coventry, those who remember the earlier blizzard that cost their town so much shudder at the memories. And then strange things begin to happen. A family of three crashes into the frozen river, but the body of the couple’s young son is nowhere to be found. Eleven-year-old Grace, TJ’s daughter, begins acting so strangely that he hardly recognizes her. A young police officer named Torres seems bent on reminding Keenan of his failure to save the life of the young Wexler boy. Miri Ristani receives a phone call from her dead father.

Snowblind builds with a sure, inescapable tension that will keep readers turning pages. One feels deeply for the characters, particularly Jake, as they face their individual and all-too-real demons. The climactic spirits-versus-humans fight scene that plays out over dozens of pages seems designed for the big screen and may cause some readers to toss the book aside in frustration. That said, readers who buy into the bigger-than-your-average-ghost fantasy will race to the end to find out what becomes of these broken, courageous characters. In Snowblind, Golden has created a terrifying, utterly gripping modern-day ghost story that will force you to consider the choices you would make if someone you loved, and tragically lost, were to suddenly appear on your doorstep.

This slim, poignant, immediately readable journey into the mind of a thirteen-year-old autistic boy is arranged as a series of answers to 39 questions–such as “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” and “Why do you like being in the water?” The book takes its name from one of the more common behaviors of autistic children, a behavior that is often frowned upon.

The Reason I Jump was written by Higashida using an alphabet grid designed by his mother to help him communicate. Much of the book centers on the subject of communication; despite the terrible difficulties he experiences in attempting to communicate with others, Higashida writes, he wants desperately to be understood. Language is difficult for him; forming words is excruciating.

In answer to the question, “Why do you echo questions back at the asker?” Higashida writes”

Firing the question back is a way of sifting through our memories to pick up clues about what the questioner is asking. We understand the question okay, but we can’t answer it until we fish out the right ‘memory picture’ in our heads.

One comes away from this book with an understanding of Higashida’s deep sensitivity, as well as his isolation and desperation. He pleads with parents of autistic children to understand that the greatest pain the child experiences is the knowledge that their caregivers suffer.

I ask you, those of you who are with us all day, not to stress yourselves out because of us. When you do this, it feels as if you’re denying any value at all that our lives may have…The hardest ordeal for us is the idea that we are causing grief for other people. We can put up with our own hardships okay, but the thought that our lives are the source of other people’s unhappiness, that’s plain unbearable.

He asks that teachers and other children be patient with behavior that may seem odd or off-putting. Autistic children do not choose to behave differently, he says. They are hardwired to do so.

As for the question that inspired the title, “What’s the reason you jump?” Higashida offers a multifaceted explanation:

“When I’m jumping, I can feel my body parts really well,” he writes, “and that makes me feel so, so good.” Beyond that, when he experiences intense feelings of happiness or sadness, his body “seizes up as if struck by lightening.” Jumping, he says, is a way to combat that stifffness, “shaking loose the ropes that are tying up my body.”

While Higashida asks for patience and understanding, he is far from self-pitying. While his autism can be painfully isolating, he also celebrates the extraordinary gifts of autism:

Every single thing has its own beauty. People with autism get to cherish this beauty, as if it’s a kind of blessing given to us. Wherever we go , whatever we do, we can never be completely lonely.

Higashida’s intense experience of the world and his precise, often lyrical observations are a reminder that autistic children have much to offer. This edition includes a forward by co-translator David Mitchell (The Cloud Atlas), who, as the parent of an autistic son, found Higashida’s unique story to be a welcome counterpoint to the growing library of books about autism, most of which are written by parents and psychologists.

Poignant, honest, and highly informative, The Reason I Jump should be required reading not only for parents of children on the autistic spectrum, but also for teachers. Parents could also read this book with non-autistic children in order to foster understanding and compassion for their autistic classmates and peers.

Michelle Richmond (reviewer) is the New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Fog, No One You Know, and Dream of the Blue Room. Her new novel, GOLDEN STATE, will be published by Random House Publishing Group in February, 2014.

Parents of only children can breathe a sigh of relief. Citing decades of comprehensive research, journalist Lauren Sandler sets out to debunk the prevailing myths about only children and their parents. As an only child and the parent of an only, Sandler understands all too well the prejudice faced by parents who choose to stop at one.

Sandler devotes ample attention to the selfishness theory–that singletons are selfish because they don’t have siblings to teach them how to share and how to get along with others. Study after study shows the fallacy of this assumption:

Instead of operating in terms of what’s mine, as siblings tend to do, onlies learn from mothers and fathers how to develop mature and ethical behavior in relationships. Singletons mimic how their parents share and take responsibility, rather than brawl over the remote. From parents’ influence, rather than an immature siblings’, Cacioppo says, You know you can’t exploit other kids, you know you have to attend to other people, and you tend to take a greater responsibility within those relationships.’

Sandler doesn’t set out to convince anyone who wants multiples to stop at one. What she does set out to do is to help parents who want to stop at one feel that doing so is an option. She argues that when parents who would prefer to have one have two or three or four, because that’s what society expects of them, they tend to be less happy as parents, and to pass the stress and unhappiness on to their children. Her findings are encouraging to those of us who choose, for whatever reason, to stop at one:

Contrary to popular belief, onlies tend to get along better, not worse, with other children.

Onlies tend to score higher on IQ tests

Onlies tend to develop a greater vocabulary much earlier–in large part because onlies receive much more language interaction with their parents than do multiples

Onlies tend to be high achievers, accounting for disproportionate numbers of, for example, Nobel Laureates

Greater access to their parents and greater “parental vigilance” leads to higher confidence in only children, which positively affects happiness and achievement throughout their lives

Onlies are more likely to build strong friendships that last throughout their lifetimes

Onlies are more likely, as adults, to be happy with solitude

Onlies tend to have stronger bonds with their parents

One of the author’s sources, Toni Falbo, has analyzed more than 500 studies, and has used the data from these studies to examine sixteen traits–

leadership, maturity, extraversion, social participation, peer popularity, generosity, cooperativeness, flexibility, emotional stability, and contentment. In each and every one of these categories, only children do just as well as siblings.

There are two gaps in the data–achievement motivation and self-esteem. In these categories, only children scored higher than children with siblings.

One of the more cynical myths about parents of onlies is that they simply don’t like children. Sandler cites an old (1955) but enlightening study surveying 1,455 fertile couples on their choice to have one or more children. The authors of the study, Lois Pratt and P.K. Whipton, found that “nearly half of the parents who planned to stop at one said they liked their child ‘very much’ on a scale of very much, much, some, or little–twice as many as parents of two kids. (Under five percent of parents with three children liked their kids ‘very much.’” The point being that parents of onlies didn’t dislike children, as is so often assumed by parents of multiples. Far from it. The parents of onlies “were usually just happy with the one child they already had.”

Unfortunately, Sandler also spends a lot of time talking about only children in China, where the famous (or infamous) one-child policy has made one-child families the norm. She cites the economic reasons for the embrace of the policy among many parents–they want their children to be able to get ahead. China is a poor comparison model for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that children who grow up in a society where all of their friends are also only children are not facing the stigma that onlies in the U.S. face. Nor are their parents.

Despite the good news for parents of only children, Sandler acknowledges the primary challenge facing singletons: as adults, they will be the sole progeny when their parents are old and ailing. She notes that parents can make this easier by planning well for their elderly years, as her own parents have done. Still, she admits, there is no easy answer for only children who will likely one day survive their parents. That said, she points out that, in most families, it is one child–usually the oldest and nearest daughter–who takes on most of the responsibilities of caring for older parents.

She also notes the importance of a healthy relationship for parents of on lies, a marriage in which each spouse is an equal, individuated partner. When parents fight, it is particularly difficult for only children, who do not have the refuge of siblings. No parents should ever cast children in the role of mediator; this is especially important in one-child families.

In addition to debunking myths about only children, Sandler delves into the patterns of only children. One-child families tend to be more prevalent in times of economic hardship. The more religious you are, the more children you tend to have. Only children are more likely to be the offspring of highly educated, secular parents.

And finally, Sandler notes that, in discussions of the environment, family size rarely comes up; it is, for all intents and purposes, off the table. While she doesn’t suggest that anyone stop at one for the sake of the environment, she notes the hypocrisy of acting as though family size is irrelevant in the environmental debate. The single most effective thing you can do to help the environment is have fewer children. The more children you have, the greater stress on the planet’s resources, no matter how environmentally “friendly” you raise your children to be.

ONE AND ONLY should be required reading for any parent who wants to have only one child but thinks they should have two “for the sake of the children.” It should also be read by parents of multiples who feel that their one-child peers are somehow “less” as parents. As the mother of a well-adjusted only, I found this book illuminating, encouraging, and essential.

In this entertaining, enlightening book, Berger explains why certain ideas and products become viral. Using examples as diverse as an As-Seen-on-TV blender, a $100 Philly cheesesteak, and the suddenly cool-again Kit Kat, Berger outlines the STEPPS system for making an idea or product highly sharable:

Social Currency – Will people feel cool and in-the-know when they share your product?

Triggers – What will remind others to think about and talk about your product?

Emotion – “When we care, we share.”

Public – How visible is your product or idea?

Practical Value – People like to share information that is helpful and practical.

Stories – If you package your product or idea in a remarkable, interesting, and relevant story, you increase sharing exponentially.

Despite a fair amount of unnecessary repetition, the book offers clear strategies for breathing life into a campaign.

Bottom Line: Contagious is a tremendously helpful guide for anyone looking to spread brand identity and create buzz on a budget. While the ideas are useful for businesses of any size, small businesses in particular will benefit from the relatively low cost of putting the STEPPS into practice.

Related content: Dan Ariely, a Duke University professor who blurbed the book, offers clear explanations of some of the behavioral patterns described in this book in the Psychology of Money segment of his online coursera course, “A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior.” For a video lecture explaining prospect theory and diminishing sensitivity, see Ariely’s lecture on money and relativity.